Response to the false book of Alireza Asgharzadeh
This article clearly shows that the recent book by Alireza Asgharzadeh is unscholarly, un-academic and racist. The book by Alireza Asgharzadeh titled: “A. Asgharzadeh, Iran and the Challenge of Diversity: Islamic Fundamentalism, Aryanist Racism, and Democratic Struggles , Palgrave Macmillan (June 12, 2007) )” is full of conspiracy theories and based upon pseudo-scholars who support conspiracy theories. The book is incoherent and inconsistent in terms of putting forward the racist thesis of the author. The aim of the current article is to examine the book and show the multitude of inconsistent argument, historical revisionism and selective amnesia of quoting sources by Alireza Asgharzadeh. The current article only examines some of the falsehood and historical forgeries perpetuated by Alireza Asgharzadeh. Had the writer of this article attempted to expose the falsehood of every single argument of Alireza Asgharzadeh, the article would simply be more than 1000 pages. But sufficient examples are given to show that Alireza Asgharzadeh is himself an extremely racist person, supports pan-Turkism and is a historical revisionist.
An important note should be made that Alireza Asgharzadeh uses the term Azerbaijani and Turk equivalently. Thus when the author of this article states statements such as: “X does not have anything to do with Turkic culture”, it does not mean that “X does not have anything to do with Azerbaijani culture”. But since Alireza Asgharzadeh uses the term interchangeably, the author of this article will take a note of this. Also some of the language used in this article might seem a bit straight forward, but when any Iranian who has not been tainted by anti-Iranian ideologies like pan-Turkism reads the book of Alireza Asgharzadeh, the response will naturally be straight forward. After the complete response, the author will give his suggestion and strategy on confronting pan-Turkism which has risen due to the ignorance of the Islamic republic and its lack of interest in Iranian nationhood and also due to foreign influence as will be shown. Also the author wishes to express that he has nothing against the citizens of any neighboring country including Turkey or Azerbaijan republic and does not judge humans based on their background which they have not chosen. But there is not a shadow of doubt that there are expansionist groups in these countries which actually inhibit mutual regional development and have expressed their desire to separate NW Iran from Iran. Thus some of the comments of this article should be seen in this defensive light. Note: This article might be expanded slightly in the future to take into account several other falsehoods created by pan-Turkist chavaunists.
Three revisionist writers quoted heavily by Asgharzadeh. 5
Naser Pourpiar 5
Brenda Shaffer 12
Mohammad Taqi Zehtabi 16
Medes. 29
Parthians. 34
Other pseudo-scholars mentioned by Asgharzadeh. 34
Racist Websites. 34
Javad Heyat 35
Sadiq Mohammadzadeh. 35
Alireza Nazmi Afshar 35
Historical Turco-Iranian Encounters. 37
Irano-Turkish Relations in the Late Sasanian Period. 45
Persian language among Turkish dynasties. 51
Oghuz attack on Azerbaijan during Ghaznavids. 53
Negative view of Turks by the Ottomans. 56
Are Azeris Turks?. 58
Assimilation and Pan-Turkism in the republic of Azerbaijan and Turkey. 64
Pan-Turkist claims on Iran in the 19th and early 20th century and selective historical amnesia by Alireza Asgharzadeh. 71
Iranian nationalism in the 19th century caucus. 72
Ottomon spreading of Pan-Turkism.. 72
Response to many of the false claims of Alireza Asgharzadeh. 91
Some Introductory material from Alireza Asgharzadeh. 91
Falsification of Iran’s history by Asgharzadeh. 97
Official Language of Iran and Asgharzadeh’s hiding of the truth. 106
Bogus Census of Demographics of Iran by Asgharzadeh. 108
Another Bogus figure. 117
Mamalek Mahrooseyeh Iran does not mean what Alireza Asgharzadeh claims. 118
Babak Khorramdin, an Iranian who fought against the Caliphs and their Turkish Soldiers. 120
Foreign Interference. 122
British meddling in Khuzestan. 122
Ottomon interference and pan-Turkism.. 123
USSR interference and Pishevari: 123
Saddam Hussein and Khuzestan. 125
The republic of Azerbaijan. 125
The West 126
Cartoon issue. 130
Response to Vaziri and Joya Sa’ad Blondel 137
Yes the majority of Iranians have been victims. 140
Elamites survived 2000+ years of Aryan presence but wiped out after the Arab and Seljuqid invasionsl 140
Dede Qorqod not related to pre-Islamic Iran. 160
Two unreliable writers does not equal many Iranian historians!! 162
Cuneiform and Greek and Old Persian. 163
Cyrus, the Old Testament and the passing away of Cyrus. 164
Asgharzadeh’s mis-information and falsification of the Avesta. 193
Ferdowsi, Shahnameh and Pan-Turkism.. 213
Omission of important sentences from sources. 241
Arya/Pars. 252
Rezashah/Khiyabani/Khazal/Ferqeh. 267
Pan-Turkists, Ferqeh and Kurds. 300
Nazi Germany and the Muslim World. 307
Arran and Azerbaijan. 311
Misrepresentation of Aref Qazvini and Shahryar 334
Afghanistan and Iraq. 336
More example of pan-Turkist historiography. 337
Conclusion. 339
Three revisionist writers quoted heavily by Asgharzadeh
Three people Asgharzadeh quotes heavily are Naser Pourpirar , Mohammad Taqi Zehtabi and Brenda Shaffer. Both the political background and revisionist and outright manipulation of these three writers is discussed in Section I. Of course, if Brenda Shaffer is reading this, she might want to skip over the Naser Pourpirar section, since Naser Pourpirar is heavily used by Asgharzadeh. At the same time, since she gave a positive review of a Pourpirar based book, she might want to read what kind of sources she is supporting and is it really in her countries (Israel’s) interest.
March 24th, 2011 at 10:22 am
Happy Noruz
The fact that you are trying to defend our cultural heritage and national identity should be praised ,nevertheless having read your
articles I have noticed some misunderstandings related to obvious personal prejudices the writers of both articles(pro/against)are showing dealing with current Iranian issues,
-Pan-Turkism is not a current invention as you wrongly stated”..pan-turkism which has risen due to the ignorance of islamic Republic and its lack of interest in Iranian nationhood..”
perhaps you might not have been living in Iran over past three decades,or you might have overlooked the post revolution history of Iran otherwise you wouldn’t remarked as such, any way let me brush up your memory “just in case” ,
just days after revolution almost all
non-Persian speaking ethnic groups with the exception of Azarbayejanis revolted to become separated from Iran Turkamans,Kurds,Baluchs,..,if the Islamic republic’s lack of interests would be true then why instead of let them go ,the government struggled enormously so that the separatists wouldn’t succeed?
-I hope you still remember the Iraqi assault on our beloved land and the heroic reaction of all people and authorities to maintain Iranian integrity and the very nationhood you mentioned. unlike Shah’s regime during whose rule we lost Bahrain
-(western) democracy and separatism: these two concepts are closely related on the ground that people have the right to decide to which nation they choose to belong or else they choose to be an independent state establishing a new nation of their own ,therefore most of separatists around the world call themselves “Democratic” in fact in modern Iranian history whenever there has been a type of liberal democratic system we were close to lose some part of Iran as it logically favours mainly economic/ linguistic factors rather than cherishing common national/ cultural values as an abstract concept ,
-pan- farsism shouldn’t be confused with genuine Iranian nationalism , the love for Iranian identity is a belief beyond “Pan-whatever-ethnicity” since the deep spirituality has always distinguished our culture from those who have only been after material gains and if you believe the opposite then you will have to vote in favour those who want to separate themselves from Iran on economic or mere linguistics reasons (democratic rights) ,remember Safavid dynasty who through the very spiritual values inherent in Iranian culture managed to bring Iranian people from various background together and defend its integrity against Ottomans and Uzbaks ,Russians, Arabs….
-we want to /and we should have peaceful relation with all nations (with no exception whatsoever)and showing them that Iranian integrity and its heritage(religious/cultural) are sacred to us, and trying to avoid unnecessary tensions (a critic directed to current governments)
-pan-turkism or any pan-whatever-ethnicity, is not and has never been a reflection of Turkic nations or any nation at all, and in general peaceful divine-human values are more deeply rooted in all of human beings and we must remind this important fact while refuting their claims,
thank you
October 15th, 2011 at 9:20 pm
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October 28th, 2011 at 4:35 pm
[…] Azerbaijan. This is shown by its encouragement of separatist minded groups like Fakhteh Zamani, Alireza Asgharazadeh, Gunaz T.V. (Ahmad Obali), etc who have a deep hatred towards Iranian peoples specially Kurdish […]